


the darkest spring

by pharloomacy



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:01:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21841378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pharloomacy/pseuds/pharloomacy
Summary: All for Lady Edelgard.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/Hubert von Vestra, edelgards not actually here though
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	the darkest spring

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on twitter @pharloom

If not for war, Hubert would have ignored Claude’s taunt entirely. But he couldn’t ignore him today; maybe in another lifetime, in a country whose religion wasn’t collared by someone like Rhea. But they did not. They lived in a country chained to the archbishop, and Edelgard was the only person who was strong enough to challenge her and succeed. Claude was a threat to Edelgard, so he was to be killed. It was hardly personal. 

“Well? We haven’t time to waste, Claude,” Hubert hisses, his lips curling to a snarl. “Though I suppose you’ve always been one to act with leisure. That reminds me of a friend of yours.. I wonder if she’s safe.”

Claude’s chest tightens, but for only as long as he forgets that he can’t be distracted here. “Oh, using my own tactics against me, are you? Very impressive, I must say. But I’m afraid I’m not fond of other people using my own ideas.”

“You are not as special as you think,” Hubert retorts, tone dripping with self-certainty and disdain. “I’ll keep this brief since you’re so eager to die.”

Sharp as he was, Hubert was already worn from his encounters with the rest of the Alliance. Linhardt was too far away, busy tending to the others. He shakes away the apprehension coming over him as he and Claude inspect each other, desperate for an opening. Their lives depended on it. Harsh wind lashes at Hubert’s face, but he dares not flinch.

They strike simultaneously. Dark Spikes T tears into Claude’s shoulder, but most of them impale his wyvern. It screeches and trashes, barely straightening itself even under Claude’s command. One grazes Claude’s shoulder, only a few centimeters away from outright stabbing him. He curses, blood welling from his shoulder.

In spite of the injuries to both himself and his mount, Claude still manages to shoot. The first clips Hubert’s side, but doesn’t lodge itself in his skin. He hisses, the pain sharp enough to distract him long enough for Claude to send another arrow. This one does directly hit Hubert -- straight into his abdomen. He staggers; the sharp pain that follows tells him that it reached something vital. He can’t remain standing like this, feet digging into the ground until he, eventually, falls to his knees. 

Claude looks taken aback by Hubert’s fall, as if he wasn’t expecting him to falter even in the face of such a blow. He stares for a moment longer. Hubert wasn’t sure if it was out of surprise, or to make sure that he wasn’t getting back up, but in the next few seconds he finds that he doesn’t care. Not with blood exiting his abdomen, the arrow failing to block the flow. He doesn’t know where Claude heads off too after that, but it doesn’t particularly matter. Blood leaves him quickly. He isn’t sure how much time passes, but he finds his mind wandering less to the reality of the situation and more to the past. To what -- to whom -- he is dying for. 

He remembers when Edelgard hurt her ankle. The scolding from his father was enough for him to remain by her side since, even if he initially resented doing so out of mere obligation. It’s only over time that he truly grows to appreciate her as someone worth serving of his own accord. It helped that she was the only child that didn’t find him frightening; even Edelgard’s siblings cowered more often than not. 

But he couldn’t remember the names of her siblings. They were taken away too quickly for him to remember, alongside Edelgard. He was desperate to find her, to the point of running away. In hindsight, it was more likely that he would have gotten himself killed rather than rescue Edelgard, but the thought of his father’s lackeys retrieving him still makes him bristle.

He remembers when she returns, all scarred and traumatized. None of her siblings remained, just her and her newfound disgust for crests. It was then she declared that, once she was emperor, she would rid the world of this injustice. They were inseparable afterward, the incident turning him all the more protective of his charge.

The monastery felt pretentious, less a place for learning and more a holding house to indoctrinate young nobility as quickly as possible. He wasn’t fond of it, but he held out in hopes that they’d learn something from it all, maybe make some connections along the way. Some good must have came from it.

Even though Byleth had chosen to lead the Golden Deer, Edelgard still grows close to her. It seems harmless to start, but as they learn more about the professor, he becomes concerned with the idea of Byleth interfering once Edelgard’s motives are revealed. The fact that Rhea was so eager to appoint Byleth in spite of her obliviousness towards the church makes things all the more curious. Hubert has his worries, but for now he lays low.

They dissent once Edelgard’s second identity is discovered. They prepare for war, watch Byleth fall into the abyss. He can tell it hurts her more than she lets on, but he doesn’t encourage her to talk about it. It would only pick at the wound. He didn’t have the attachment to the professor that she did, but he did care about Edelgard’s well being. Yet, he thought the professor’s death as a miracle rather than the tragedy Edelgard so clearly saw it to be.

Five years later, the professor returns alive. The news isn’t received well to Hubert nor Edelgard; any lingering appreciation she had for her former teacher had been hardened away by the destructive years of war.

Those years meld into one. They continue to kill those that were once friends, witness their current friends be killed. It carries on, until, until —

Until Hubert is laying face-first to the ground, his slowing breath inhaling the scent of dirt and his own blood. His vision wavers, and the last thing he hears before losing consciousness entirely is Claude’s call of triumph. And still, he bleeds out with no regret.

**Author's Note:**

> okay i promise this wasn't for the sake of just watching hubert suffer. ive always wondered about how the characters feel while they're dying.. glad because they served their cause? remorseful, because they couldn't continue to fight on? i wanted to write about this with hubert because he's one of the most committed to his cause. there's no significance to claude being the one who killed him though, i just picked him because he's the one who killed hubert in my gd run


End file.
